The Story of Tony Fieldson and Afton Johnson

In the summer of the year 2007, I met a girl :-)

I few months beforehand, I had undergone a life-saving and indescribably wonderful experience, becoming converted to Jesus Christ, and being baptized into His Church on February 18th.

In the summer of 2007, a girl named Afton Johnson came home to Orange County, California to visit her family while she was on a break from attending classes at Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah.

She and I met at an institute of religion class at Cal State Long Beach on a Wednesday evening, sometime in the summer of that year.

It turns out that a man by the name of Larry Johnson, who taught this religion class, and who had been very instrumental in my conversion, was also Afton’s dad.

I remember her dad recognizing Afton in front of the class at the beginning, and I remember hearing her make a few comments during the class. I remember she had a sweet and soft voice and I was impressed by the spiritual maturity of her comments.

I believe her dad introduced us after the class was over, and we chatted for a few minutes and became acquainted with each other a little bit. I don’t remember very clearly any of my impressions of her, but I’m guessing that I noticed how beautiful and kind she was. She has since told me that she was impressed by me. She remembers getting the impression that I was full of confidence, and didn’t seem to be overly impressed with her. I might have been pretending not to care too much, although I’m guessing that inside I was awestruck by her beauty and the light, goodness, purity and glory that radiated from her countenance (and still does today). This caught her attention, since I’m guessing she was used to guys falling head-over-heels in love with her. The fact that I didn’t - perhaps gave Afton a challenge she wasn’t used to having, and this novelty might have excited her.

I don’t remember if we exchanged numbers, but the next time I saw Afton was a few months later at a UCLA vs BYU college football game. Her dad had invited myself and my dad to the game, and to my surprise, Afton was there! I’m not sure if her dad was trying to set us up, but coincidentally, we met again. We sat next to each other, and began to talk, and quickly lost focus of the game. I remember that we talked about all sorts of things, and the conversation had a great flow to it. In fact, I think I only caught a glimpse or two of the entire 3-hour game. At this point, I had her number, and we proceeded to chat on the phone every-once-in-a-while for the next few weeks.

The next time we saw each other was about a month after the football game. I had come up to Utah with a few friends for the semiannual General Conference of my church. Afton and I figured out a time where I could come by and see her. I believe it was a Friday night, and I came over to her apartment and we hung out for a couple of hours. Once again we both really enjoyed being in each other’s presence and talking. We talked about some of our favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon, and she shared with me some of the writing she had done in one of her creative writing classes at BYU. My favorite moment of that night was when I was about to leave and say goodbye.

I wasn’t sure how she felt about me, but my heart was full of giddy puppy love for her. She was the most beautiful and sweet girl I had ever met. Growing up, I had always been attracted to really cute and kind girls kind of like Afton (but not nearly as dynamite as Afton obviously:). The only problem was that none of these girls had ever liked me back. I didn’t have a lot of dating success in high school, and I had my heart broken more than once.

Fast forward to the time I met Afton. Not only was she my type, but I felt a soul connection to her, and it seemed as if she was feeling the same vibes. However, my confidence that she would actually be interested in me was low. In order to protect myself, I just told myself that she probably just enjoyed hanging out with me as a friend, but that never in a million years would she be interested in me romantically.

Then, before I left that evening, we gave each other a goodbye hug. Now, this hug was no ordinary hug. It felt like I was hugging my wife, the wife that I had been destined to find and marry since before this earth was created. Her soft body, soft heart, and soft soul blessed my soul, heart and body with angelic femininity, and I didn’t want to let go - but I did after about 10-seconds, for fear of seeming awkward. That is when Afton surprised the heck out of me. She told me that she was enjoying hugging me so much, that she didn’t want to let go! I don’t even think the reality of what she said fully hit me at the moment. I was probably in disbelief, but I kept hugging her for another minute or two, and we further cemented the feelings we were beginning to have for eachother. It’s as if we were recognizing a familiar and wonderful feeling from a past life, and we wanted to bask in it for longer because it felt so good. It felt like home.

The next day, my friends and I met up for lunch with her and her friends after one of the sessions of General Conference. My friend Sean remembers how gone on Afton I was. I think we were still feeling the blissful flow from our experience together the night before. Something that stuck out to me that day was how serviceful Afton was. I remember her going out of her way to fill up my water glass, and put away my dishes at the end of the lunch.

Later that day I left for home, and we continued to catch up on the phone. At this time, texting was beginning to become more popular, and Afton was more experienced with it than I was. I remember that she used to include a smiley face at the end of every text. I believe she was the first person who had ever sent me a smiley face via text, and so instead of perceiving the smiley face in her text as a normal friendly gesture, as I would nowadays, since it is so common, I thought she was flirting with me and continuing to give me hints that she liked me LOL. Maybe she was a little bit at least :-)

A few weeks after seeing Afton in Utah, something tragic happened. My best friend Alisha Johnson was murdered. Her and her family had befriended me and had been very instrumental in my conversion. Alisha was such a Christ-like person, and was the best friend I had ever had up until that point in my life. The news of this tragedy struck me deep to the core. I had never before lost a loved one before, family or friend.

When I told Afton of the news, she demonstrated a level of nurturing and compassion towards me that was truly heaven sent. It turns out that Afton too, the year previous had lost a dear friend. Afton expressed that she was still experiencing grief to that day. She proceeded to minister to me and comfort me, as she shared her faith in Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness and life after death.

Then a few months passed by, and I believe Afton and I kept in touch here and there, as I’m sure we were busy with school and work. I also recognize that I probably did not pursue her very much via phone calls etc, because of my continued lack of confidence that someone like her could seriously be interested in someone like me. Even after our “hugging experience”, my confidence still waned.

Soon after it came time for me to get ready for my mission. I had been excited to serve a mission since before I had even joined the Church of Jesus Christ, and I began to zealously prepare.

About a month before my departure date, in the spring of 2008, Afton came down to California for a few weeks. I took advantage of this opportunity, and we hung out a few different times. We went to the Newport Temple, visited my Mom’s kindergarten class, and I remember one time showing her one of my favorite songs from my favorite music group, The Moody Blues. The song is called, “Nights in White Satin,” and it is a hauntingly romantic love song. The chorus lines repeat the phrase, “and I love you, yes I love youuuuuuuuu, ooooooooooh how I looooove youuuuuuu, oh how I loooooooooove you.” I wonder what she was thinking when I shared this song with her. Although I felt strongly enough for her to want to pursue her further, I was set on not being committed to anyone while I was on my mission. I had been influenced by some friends who counseled me that I could get distracted or heartbroken on my mission because of having a relationship attachment. Afton recalls me telling her after I was done playing the song this: “whatever ends up happening, I want to you know what a special person you are, and you deserve the very best.”

The time for me to leave for my mission came, in May of 2008. I had a going away party that Afton came to, and we took two pictures together that we rediscovered when I got home from my mission, and we treasure them to this day. Afton also came to my setting apart. We shook hands, and parted ways.

I don’t remember what we had said about writing each other, but my very first day in the MTC, I received a letter from her, which she had sent a few days previous, hoping it would find me on my first day. Although I was settling into mission mode, the letter lit me up with joy, that this stunningly gorgeous and sweet heavenly angel was still showing interest in me! I wrote her back, and two days later I received another letter from her, with shocking news! She had come back up to Utah, and she was planning on visiting the MTC, to serve as an investigator to allow missionaries to practice! What a stalker LOL! A few times while I was in the MTC, my district had a few minutes of a break to go outside, and I remember looking around to see if I could perhaps get lucky and see Afton. We didn’t end up seeing each other however.

As my mission progressed, we exchanged a few more letters, and then at some point I never received a letter back from her. I later found out that she had drafted a few letters to me, but hadn’t sent them. It has been fun for me to recently read those letters, and to find that in one of them she confessed her love for me, which she had never before done.

My parents could tell that I liked Afton more than the other girls I had dated before my mission, and they could also tell she was the best catch I had ever attracted before.

They kept in touch with Afton’s parents a little bit during my mission, since they had formed a relationship during the time my Dad had questions about me converting to the church, and Afton’s dad helped to answer them.

In one of their letters to me on my mission, my parents informed me that Afton was not dating anyone seriously, and that her sister Jylare half-jokingly remarked, “maybe she’s waiting for Tony!” Although I was deep into my mission at this point, my heart within me let out a sigh of hope and longing.

I remember that at one point on my mission, my mission president’s wife asked me if I had any girl interests from before the mission. I told her that I had dated a few girls before the mission, but there was one who was particularly special, Afton. :-)

As the time for my mission was drawing to a close, I began to receive some promptings to be more diligent in my morning exercises, and I distinctly remember the image and memory of Afton coming into my mind as motivation to work out hard.

My mission came to an end in May of 2010, and I called Afton the day after I got home to check in.

We were both excited to catch up, and she said, “let’s be friends!” I’m not sure exactly what this meant, but I later found out that she was starting to seriously date someone right at the time I got home from my mission. In addition, I later found out that the several indications of interest she had shown me in the past were not all as romantic as I had hoped. She thought I was cute and a little bit young, but she does remember feeling something special, and she did feel some potential was there. I’m thankful my mission helped mature me, as I’m sure that helped her become more attracted to me.

So despite the fact that Afton had begun to date someone, she and I still saw each other a few times a week for the first month after my mission. I presume she was spending just as much time with the guy she was dating as well each week, so she must have been a busy bee during that time!  

After about a month of hanging out with Afton, I spoke with her one night while we were sitting together on the sand in front of the waves in Huntington Beach. I told her how much I was enjoying spending time with her, and that I wanted to take our relationship to the next level. In hindsight, I was still a little bit too weird coming home from my mission, and I should have slowed down a little. Afton helped me slow down though, as she informed me that she was enjoying spending time with me as well, but she was seeing someone else at the moment. She hadn’t told me for the previous month that we had been hanging out that she was also dating someone else! She also disclosed to me that she didn’t foresee her relationship working out with this guy, but that she wasn’t ready to end the relationship quite yet either.

I was shocked, and definitely heartbroken. However, in hindsight, it gave me an opportunity to settle in more from my mission.

Afton and I hung out less after she revealed to me the news. She continued to date this guy, and they got more serious, which I don’t think she had anticipated.

During this time, I met a girl and we hit it off and started dating.

A little bit later, Afton’s family was going to Yosemite and Afton invited me to go. I was shocked! I thought she was dating this guy still. She was, but she invited me before him. I declined her offer, since I had started dating someone, even though I don’t think I disclosed that to Afton at the time.

I still kept in touch with Afton from time to time. The guy she was dating didn’t want me to keep in touch with her, since they were getting more serious. Afton relayed that information to me, and was sorry, but thanked me for understanding. That definitely hurt and was tough to take.

A few weeks later, Afton called and informed me that she and the guy she was dating had broken up, and that she would love to hang out with me at my next convenience.

This is when I broke the news to her that I was seeing someone, and wouldn’t be able to hang out with her. Apparently this rocked her to the core! For a while now she had been used to being in the driver’s seat, with the upper hand, since I was pursuing her and she was dating someone else. Now the roles were reversed. She was single, and I was dating someone.

She called me back a few days later, and wanted me to know that she really did like me and was serious about wanting to date me. She told me that she hoped it could work out in the future, and to let her know if it didn’t work out with the other girl. Afton had never been that forward before about her feelings for me, so it was nice to have a more sure conviction of where she was coming from. That way, if I decided to pursue her again, I wouldn’t have to worry about the feeling not being mutual.

Now, the girl I was dating was great, and we were hitting it off, but I still felt a stronger prompting that Afton was my destiny, so within a few weeks, I had broken up with my girlfriend, and Afton and I begun to hang out again.

We both later admitted that we had an inner yearning to see what it would be like to date each other, and we each had to break up with our the person we were dating to find out! There was just something inside of us that knew!

So around October of 2010 we finally got to start seriously dating each other after the obstacles were out of the way.

During the first few months of seeing each other more, we had some good times together, but it still took some time to get over our previous relationships.

I remember sometime towards the end of 2010 we had a DTR moment. I remember expressing to Afton how much I was enjoying spending time with her, and that I really liked her a lot. However, she didn’t seem to believe me. She expressed to me that her confidence was low and she was intimidated by me and felt I was nearly perfect (which was far from true, and she has learned how not true that is with time. :) I nearly fainted when she told me that, because the exact opposite was true for me! My confidence was low, and I was intimidated by her breathtaking perfection. Once we figured out that our feelings were mutual, our relationship was ready to reach a new level.

When we reached the beginning of 2011, our relationship took off, sparked by a magical New Year’s Eve.

For New Year’s Eve of 2010, I went with Afton and her family to an institute of religion building in Los Angeles that was right on the street of the Rose Parade that would be taking place the following day. That evening we had a lot of fun with Afton’s family, singing karaoke and doing other things. Around 10:00 that evening Afton, myself, and her brother Boyd and their cousin laid down on our stomachs to watch the movie “Amazing Grace,” on Boyd’s laptop on the carpet. Afton and I were just getting to the point where our feelings were kindling for each other and coming to a climax. The movie only helped kindle our feelings, because it has romance, and a wonderful story about God’s grace. Starting at the beginning of the movie, and lasting almost to the end Afton and I began to secretly hold each other’s hands in the dark. But this was no ordinary hand holding session. We were passionately holding hands. We were squeezing and rubbing each other’s hands as if we had just realized that we were the one we had always been waiting for and we were both on cloud 9 in an elated bliss. :) Once again, like the celestial hugging session at Afton’s apartment in Provo, I felt the eternal loving connection of Afton’s sweet beauty. My heart was full and sung more songs of rejoicing, gratitude and love for and from God that night than ever before.

This experience propelled us into 5 months of heaven to start of 2011.

We saw each other almost every day, and we had so many wonderful moments of connection and a lot of fun as well. We enjoyed ice skating together, Mexican food at Wahoos and Chipotle, watching movies like “It’s A Wonderful Life”, and traveling to Utah, Arizona and Las Vegas. Both Afton and I have a silly sense of humor, and I am blessed to have an easy audience (and still do today) as I could make her laugh at the drop of a dime.

Afton and I had many deep and wonderful conversations about our lives, our life philosophies, and our future dreams. We shared many similar goals and dreams. We both had the gospel of Jesus Christ, marriage and family as a priority, and had many enjoyable devotionals and gospel conversations together. I remember also during this time that we memorized “The Living Christ” together.

Another way we connected was through speaking in Spanish to each other. She served her mission in Chile, and I in Mexico. We enjoyed the connection we felt whenever To would switch to Spanish.

Afton and I also shared a love for music, and we each made 3-4 CD’s for each other full of love songs that reminded us of each other. We now have a YouTube playlist of over 20 songs that have especially meant something to us or have a story behind it.

I have always prided myself at knowing music pretty well, especially the rock and roll music of the 60s and 70s, which my parents introduced me to.

One night I got the idea to show Afton one of my favorite love songs, “For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her,” by Art Garfunkel. The melody of this song and the tenderness of Art’s voice are one of the most beautiful and gentle sounds my ears have heard.

I proceeded to play the song for Afton, and to my utter surprise, she knew the song and we started singing it together, and she even knew the lyrics better than I did!!! This was so attractive to me, since it was pretty rare for people our age to know this obscure song.

This was one small sign of many that we were soul mates!

And speaking of rock and roll music, one of our favorite dates was when we went to a Styx concert. That was such a fun night!

One our favorite dates that we repeated often was going to the beach, running along the water during the early morning or sunset, and also swimming in the blessed salt water on hot days.

One day we spoke about our desires to strive for a fulfilling marriage and family, and we found out that coincidentally we both wanted ideally anywhere from  exactly 4-7 children.

We also discovered that we had some other things in common as well, that were small things, but special to us. For example, her name Afton, and my name Tony, share the t-o-n, being the last three letters of her name, and the first three of mine. So symbolically, we fit together perfectly, I start where she ends, and so on :) We felt that is was another sign that God had made us for each other. We believe that God is in the minute details.

Another curious thing about our middle names is that both of our younger siblings of the same sex hold our middle name as their first name. Afton’s middle name is Jylare, which is the first name of her younger sister. And my middle name is Joshua, which is the first name of my younger brother.

Around February of 2011, as Afton and I started exclusively dating, we started talking about how exciting it was that our relationship was soaring so high. We both admitted that we had thoughts about getting married, and we also both admitted that we had never seriously thought that about anyone else before. We still wanted to give it more time though.

I felt like pinching myself. I couldn’t believe that Heavenly Father was that amazing, and that I could be so lucky to have a woman as absolutely angelic as Afton. Just a few years previous Heavenly Father had given me the indescribable joy of discovering the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, for which I will forever be indebted. And now, he was doubly blessing me with another earth shattering and unfathomable blessing in Afton.

Afton was so kind, sweet, gentle, thoughtful, smart, talented, spiritual, compassionate, fun, confident, beautiful in every way, and above all, I felt a soul and heart connection to her that I recognized, as if we knew each other before and were soul mates from all eternity.

It was also Impressive and intimidating at the same time that she and her family were such stalwart church members, and lived great family-centered lives. It was attractive because I knew I and my children would blessed by Afton’s strong example and that of her family.

I felt like riff raff compared to her, not only because of the attributes, values, confidence and apparent success of her and her family, but because of aspects of my past, and my current low-confidence.

It’s like the Lord had to shapin’ me up by converting me and then sending me on a mission, to be worthy of Afton. I still need much polishing though :-)

As we approached March and April of 2011, we continued to become more serious in our relationship.

I recall one special moment where we were listening to a love song called, “The Luckiest,” on my birthday eve. She had just done a bunch of wonderful things for me on my birthday, like decorating my car at the institute parking lot and many more things, and I felt like playing the song to express to her how lucky I felt to have her. I have often felt that through music I can communicate deep feelings that no words I know of can. So I began to play the song, and then I felt moved to take her hand and slow dance with her. I soon became emotional while we slow danced, and I know she felt it too.

I was so crazy in love that I did things that were not the most logical. One morning I randomly surprised Afton by pulling up in front of her house about 8:00am in the morning. I stood outside of my car and leaned against it, and proceeded to blare love songs as I shouted them to her house from the depths of my soul. It turns out that she was asleep, but soon was woken up by me and came outside to see my craziness. It wasn't a few seconds after she had a smile on my face after seeing what I was doing that a police officer showed up in response to a complaint from a neighbor about the volume of the music from my car. Oops!

I remember another time soon after that where I fell to my knees in my room at my parents house where I lived, balling, and thanking Heavenly Father so much for blessing me with Afton.

The experiences Heavenly Father blessed us with during our courtship (and since) were endless.

Another favorite of mine was when we went to the temple together to perform a sealing for my great-grandparents on my Mom’s side. Afton and I represented my ancestors over the sealing altar, and we got a preview of our future date. :) It was such a spiritual experience, and we said “I love you” to each other for the first time that night as well.

During the beginning of May, we went ring shopping, and Afton pointed out some of the rings she liked. Later that week she told me that if I proposed, she would say yes! I appreciated this tip, because although I was pretty confident at this point that she wanted to marry me, I didn't know if she was quite ready. And I felt like I was.

On Tuesday, May 17th, I proposed to Afton. We were going to her Dad’s institute class that evening, and during the middle of the day, I texted her to see if she wanted to grab a bite to eat and hang out by the beach before her class. Funny enough, she said, “You’re not going to propose are you?!” I had to tell her a white lie (which I would shortly confess to) since I was indeed planning on it! I guess I was too obvious by asking her to go to the beach randomly on a weeknight before insitute since I had never done something like that before, oops! We also had discussed getting engaged for a few weeks previous, so it was on her mind when I asked her to go to the beach.

I remember that the day before I decided to propose, I was so excited that I couldn’t take it! I didn’t feel like there was anything to wait for. We had both talked to each other about how we were ready.

When Afton and I met up that late-afternoon, my heart was full of glee and love for her. She looked so gorgeous and happy, and I couldn’t wait to get this off of my chest and for us to be engaged.

I was still trying to keep up my lie, so while we sat down together on the sand, overlooking the ocean, I guided the conversation into other topics. I even pretended that I was ready to go to institute at one point, so that if she had thought I was going to propose while at the beach, she probably now thought that her intuition wasn’t right, since it appeared as if I was ready to walk back to our car.

It was just at that time when we were about to turn around and walk back that I told her to hold on for a second.

I then proceeded to get down on my knee and ask her to marry me.

She said yes, and we were married the following April 7th, of 2012.

The wedding day was beautiful. We had the support of so many family and friends. It was a beautiful Saturday morning, and Afton’s former Bishop, Stake President and Patriarch, Thomas Borquist performed an absolutely beautiful sealing.

We had a wonderful ring ceremony for my family and reception. My favorite memory from that night was from the ring ceremony. Afton and I each took turns sharing a little bit about our feelings for each other. What Afton said, and how she said it, was very memorable. She talked about how she had always felt very safe with me, and she got emotional while saying so. Her father, who was performing the ring ceremony, spoke after she was done and remarked that he was so thankful as a father, because that was the number one thing he hoped his daughter would feel about her spouse.

Another tender mercy occurred that night as Afton and I left the reception and drove to our hotel in Laguna Beach. As we descended down a street, we saw right in front of us a gigantic orange full moon, low in the sky. We both had never before (or since) seen such a huge moon! It was as if our Heavenly Parents were confirming what we had just done, and letting us know that their love was with us.

Since Afton and I didn’t get to eat very much during the reception because the receiving line was so long, I remember we both woke up in the middle of the night starving, and enjoyed the leftovers of a yummy dutch apple pie our family had sent us off with.

The next day, we embarked on our week long vacation in Oahu, Hawaii. It was such a blessed experience in many ways.

Since the honeymoon, four and a half years have come on gone so quickly. And they have been filled with SO many tender mercies of the Lord. I will briefly mention some of the highlights.

During the first few years of our marriage while we lived in Fountain Valley, we were blessed to serve as ward missionaries together, and we also got to serve with the young men and women at the same time as each other.

The Lord also blessed us with the opportunity to serve as Ordinance Workers together in the Newport Beach temple during 2014, and it was SUCH a wonderful experience.

We also thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the Millennial Choirs and Orchestras for a semester, singing the oratorio Elijah, 2 songs from The Prince of Egypt, and a heavenly rendition of Come, Come Ye Saints.

We had an amazing time together visiting my mission in Mexico City, and we vacationed nearby in Acapulco on the same trip.

Afton and I have collaborated on 2 projects that were tremendous hits in my Spanish and History classes at the High Schools I’ve taught at. We took 2 popular songs, and changed the lyrics to fit what I was teaching at the particular time, and my students went bananas when I sang the new rendition to them. Afton’s gift with words helped me out a lot, and she has been my editor-in-chief on various occasions at other times.

My parents have spoiled us by taking us to Hawaii along with my brother and his wife, and to say we loved it would be a severe understatement. We’ve also enjoyed going to Avila Beach and Palm Springs a few times each with them. In addition, we have enjoyed numerous other get togethers with my family and extended family for family and holiday celebrations.

We have also enjoyed numerous memories with Afton’s family. From BYU games, to church events, to family vacations to Yosemite, Oregon and Lake Winnipesaukee, we have been blessed with many rich experiences. She has a large and wonderful family, and they have always been very very kind to me.

Afton and I have enjoyed vacationing on our own in Santa Cruz, Utah and Arizona together as well.

Another thing we have enjoyed doing is going on double dates and socializing with different couples.

And throughout our entire marriage, we have continued to enjoy A LOT of laughs.

We’ve also each had our own personal struggles, and occasional challenges in our marriage which are common to the growing process of life. We have learned much through these experiences, and the Lord has helped our marriage grow even stronger as we have strived our best to keep Him close and work together the best we can to become more one.

We have read marriage books and used marriage counseling from time to time to educate ourselves about how to form a more perfect union and resolve issues as well, and it has definitely been helpful.

Another highlight in our marriage was when we went to an very affordable personal trainer for about 6 months. A lady name Abir worked our bottoms off in her garage once a week.

Afton and I share a strong love for spiritual music, and singing together as well. We had an especially spiritual experience singing “Nearer My God To Thee” one time during Sacrament meeting.

We have also continued to love going to the beach together, grabbing Mexican Food, and eating at healthy restaurants.

Another one of our favorite pastimes is taking walks together outside in nature and enjoying the sunset and good conversation.

In August of 2015, we were blessed with a sacred tender mercy. We found out we were pregnant!!! And later we found out that we were going to have a little girl! Afton LOVED being pregnant. She has always been excited for this opportunity. We were blessed to have many people and classes that helped us in our preparation, and our precious Azalea Noel Fieldson came to us on Saturday morning, April 16th, 2016.

Another highlight experience in our marriage was the baby moon we took in Laguna beach a couple of months before Azalea’s due date. We were so lucky to find a gem of a little hotel right on the beach, and were blessed to have a gorgeous ocean view from our place! It was such a refreshing and rejuvenating getaway, and it was a great time of bonding for us.

Every single day we are amazed and in awe at how precious and heavenly and glorious and beautiful our little Azalea is, and how lucky we are. We have enjoyed beyond belief being her parents together, and enjoy soaking up all of the special things about her.

And the Lord has brought us closer as we have worked together raising our girl thus far.

My heart swells with gratitude at the myriad and diverse experiences with Afton my Heavenly Parents have given us, to help us grow in love with each other and become more like them and grow closer to them.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen :)